We’re proud to have teamed up with plant and flower purists Aveda, to bring their dreamy, tranquil StressFix™ massage into the homes of busy Londoners.
You’ve all loved the treatment so we thought it was about time to introduce you to the superwoman behind it, who each month, trains our therapist community the protocol. She obviously does a very good job – the treatment has an average rating of five stars, and you can’t get better than that!
We caught up with Antonia, Skin Expert, to dig into life at Aveda, why she loves the’s the StressFix™ treatment and what she does while she’s not training several hundred therapists all over the UK and Ireland.
How long have you been at Aveda?
I’ve been at Aveda for about 14 years now. I’ve taken two breaks from the brand to pursue other projects but Aveda keeps on drawing me back in!
What do you think it is that keeps drawing you back in?
I think it’s both the addictive aromas of Aveda products and our brand ethos – in equal measure.
I also love all of our initiatives around environmental and social responsibility, they’re the very core of the Aveda brand and that often happens ‘behind the scenes’. For example, for the last 10 years, we have purchased a special type of handcrafted paper from Nepal called Lokta Bark paper that we use for our Christmas gift boxes. This paper is made by women’s co-operatives in remote Nepalese villages and all of the money from orders of their paper has been used to build local schools and communities, which has been especially needed following the devastating earthquakes of 2015. It sounds very cliché, but it really does make you feel great, knowing that you are helping someone far away by buying an Aveda product!
What does a typical working day look like for you?
8am – 8.30am: Answer emails from the night before.
8.30am – 9.30am: Set up my classroom ready for the day’s training session – I cover the whole of the UK and Ireland, so I could be training anywhere from London to Aberdeen to Exeter to Dublin!
9.30am – 1pm: Class begins! As well as teaching the StressFix™ massage for Urban, I could be teaching Aveda facials, massage, body treatments or manicures/pedicures to therapists working in salons using Aveda products or haircare, skincare and makeup product knowledge to new Aveda Advisors working in department stores such as John Lewis or Debenhams.
1pm – 2pm: Quick lunch break (if I’m at our HQ, normally a salad from our amazing on-site restaurant) and catch up on some more emails.
2pm-5.30: Back to class before heading home for the day at around 5.45pm.
With such a busy work life, you must need a massage yourself once in a while! How often do you get a chance to have some ‘me-time’?
Because I travel a lot for work, I love just spending time at home. I’ve recently moved out of London to the Surrey Hills and so I’m busy turning my new home into a restful sanctuary. Whether it’s relaxing in front of the fire with a glass of red wine and a good book or having a StressFix™ pamper night in my candle-lit bathroom, home is where I’m happiest and where I can really switch off.
What’s your favourite product from the Stress-Fix range?
It’s so hard to choose. I absolutely love the StressFix™ Body Creme but I think my ultimate favourite is the StressFix™Soaking Salts – even the name makes me feel relaxed. As soon as you add these to warm bath water, the aroma fills your bathroom and even your whole house! My husband has recently discovered these salts and now he uses them more than I do. Besides being used in bath water, they can be blended with the StressFix™ Composition Oil and used as a body scrub. I love a product that can be used in multiple ways.
Lastly, what is the Aveda StressFix™ massage and what makes it such an amazing treatment?
The Aveda Stress-Fix Massage is a treatment that combines the power of aroma, breath and touch in order to help you to recover from the negative effects of stress. During the treatment, the Aveda StressFix™ aroma is combined with Swedish massage, deep tissue, foot reflexology and acupressure techniques, as well as a guided meditation to leave you feeling calmer and more balanced.
I think that most people would say that they have been affected by stress at some point in their lives, and stress can negatively affect every aspect of our health, so we need to do something about it. Nowadays, many people are over-using or over-stimulating the sympathetic part of their autonomic nervous system, meaning that they regularly feel under pressure, tense and on high alert, ready to deal with a stressful situation. Having a StressFix™ massage will essentially help to switch off this sympathetic part of the nervous system and will instead engage the parasympathetic part of the nervous system to enable us to recover from stress.
Book the Curates: Aveda StressFix™ massage
You can also find the StressFix™ product range here